Milan Design Agenda had one of the most energetic fashion weeks ever… At Milan Fashion Week 2015, proved to be a lesson in learning how much fashion designers lines are beyond our world! From Giorgio Armani to Salvatore Ferragamo , and Roberto Cavalli…all were about shapes and style equations! Milan Design Agenda brings you today a full report of Milan Fall Trends for next season with this Milan Fashion Week 2015.

“It is not very easy to try to do something different,” said Gucci’s new creative director Alessandro Michele backstage after his first womenswear show for the house. Considering that he has worked behind the scenes at the house for 12 years and has experienced firsthand the commercially driven direction of his predecessor, Michele’s choice to do something so completely different was even more applaudable.

And so he did. From top to bottom. Changing the seating layout, doing just one show, crafting a square runway, picking almost exclusively unknown models and giving the show a mise en scene, tiled walls that mimicked the look and feel of a metro station. All of it combined to set the stage for a collection imbued with an androgynous romanticism.

Following in the footsteps of his menswear collection, which he created in just five days, the clothing continued to blur the gender lines. Was it a boy or a girl who inhabited a crinkled pea green leather suit worn with a ribbon tie, sky blue shirt, glasses and horsehair clogs? The model in the long sleeve pink ruffled top and easy cut red trousers was a mystery. As was the pompon knitted cap-wearing person in the gilded geometric patterned double-breasted coat and fur tufted footwear.

“Sensuality is something that is inside of you,” explained the designer when asked about the androgynous aspect of his work. “Because there are a lot of really beautiful girls that can look like a man and also men look like a woman. It’s the story of the world. It is the life.”

To listen to Michele talk about his work is to feel its poetic vulnerability. For example, he chose to have many of his models wear thick glasses because he likes the idea of celebrating the imperfection of still needing glasses in a world where everyone is trying to correct every aspect of their being. Now all that remains to be seen is, will Gucci’s customers understand Michele’s new modern fashion language? Alessandro will give to Gucci, the status of the greatest italian top fashion designers.

From the dark a winter sun arose on the backdrop of the Alberta Ferretti show on Wednesday. Its rays warming a snow-blanketed woodland as it slowly progressed, along with the collection, across the scenery until sunset. It made for a highly romantic mise en scene to the folkloric-flavored collection that took its rich color palette from the autumnal hues highlighted by those shafts of light.

The musical “Into The Woods” has just been successfully turned into a major motion picture, and it was easy to imagine some of Ferretti’s sweet above-the-knee white lace dresses, fur-trimmed outerwear and lush velvet gowns covered in gilded metal thread having made great additions to that lyrical mash up of fairytales.

For there was something enchanted about this collection. It was not really of this time. Rather, its fanciful nature made many of the ensembles feel as if they were designed as statement pieces created more for major life moments instead of everyday attire.

Fairytale femininity. That is what Ferretti is offering the world this season. And is there a woman alive who hasn’t wanted a fabled fashion moment at least once in her life?

While all the world has turned frugal after being whipped in the ass by the financial crisis, terrorism and baffling epidemics, Philipp Plein is probably one of the very few people left on earth partying in this fashion week 2015!

With more than enough money to drop, the 37-year-old German designer built a Philipp Plein-labeled roller coaster to centerpiece his fashion show set in Milan’s 1920’s-era Palazzo delle Scintille. To kick off the event, he invited Harlem-born rapper Azaelia Banks to get the party started right.

Like his menswear last month, luxurious and rare materials were the hallmark of the collection: wild Mongolian Kidassia fur coats, python and crocodile jogging pants and mink and fox fur basketball jerseys were just a few high-ticket items fit for a true “baller”— or baller’s girlfriend, anyways.

Black and white looks with a touch of orange dominated. Belted jackets and vests were paired with leather strap and metallic spike studded boots. Slit-cut dresses and skin-celebrating mini-skirted ensembles were fit for a hip-hop princess.

Plein closed by running around the stage with a gaggle of dancing models, in an exhausting attempt to pump up the Milanese fashion world, known for its lack of hype in comparison to New York or Paris, who trump it in terms of their celeb-studded parties and lavish theatrics.

Model Doutzen Kroes, awash in a stark white oversized peacoat and headband, kicked off the Fendi show with a sense of artistic purism — symbolic of a break from the confines of massified trends.

A departure indeed from last winter season’s dark spy-spirited theme, a mother nature, realist movement took hold of the Roman house in terms of leather looks that included a-line gardening aprons and oversized-pocketed pants big enough for shovels and grass-trimming scissors.

While more down-to-earth and in-touch with nature, this Fendi fashionista’s gardening gloves were fit for a true lady and fashioned with suede and trimmed in furs like mink or fox. Architectonic and paneling techniques were splashed onto fur patterns, prints and complex leather combos and even footwear and accessories.

With the focus on outerwear, Fendi combined modern tech silhouettes and puffy Alpine ski attire with fur looks typical of their ’70s heyday when they were the go-to furriers for the majority of upperclass Roman ladies and silver-screen stars. Burnt orange and tobacco ensembles, as well as astrakhan trench coats, were also a salute to the house’s 1970s glam days.

With news that Roberto Cavalli is getting closer to sealing a deal with Clessidra, its 20s set Just Cavalli label held back on the usual circus of shock and awe. When it reported earnings before the show Thursday, the Italian fashion house said it was confident talks with the private equity firm for the sale of a majority stake in the Florentine group should be finalized in March.

In fact, the financial news was a bit of a downcast precursor, in the sense that the collection was a true departure from the wild silhouettes and prints that Mr. Cavalli does best. In fact, save for all but one look, there was virtually none of its traditional animal print seen on the runway.

In terms of tailoring, Cavalli’s younger, party crowd looks ranged from boho ’70s to Dr. Seuss wild character pieces with willowy explosions of mustard yellow and burnt orange fur trimmings.

Following to the beat of an abstract Utopian mantra and bling bling rhymes about money to spend, the Just Cavalli woman seemed to have emerged from a world torn apart by globalization and capitalism.

Jeremy Scott went a little bit Looney Tunes with his fall/winter 2015 Moschino show. But this is a designer who loves to put a playful twist on archetypal attire and get his kook on by creating clothing that taps into sunny side nostalgia. This season Scott looked to the hip hop styles of the ’80s for his starting point. So, to the infections rhythms of J.J. Fad’s “Supersonic” and Kris Kross’s “Jump,” he sent out day glow gear in padded quilting that Flavor Flav would certainly be a fan of.

He probably would also like to get his hands on one of the Tweety bird-faced clock necklaces Scott sent down the runway along with the baseball jerseys covered in Looney Tunes characters doing their best gangsta poses across the front. While the semi-shear black tops, embroidered with enough gold chains to make Mr. T proud, made a nice lightweight alternative to the real thing.

Inside the isolating industrial metal boxes that made up the Prada set this season, designer Miuccia Prada let germinate a delightfully girly collection filled with pastel-hued pieces that reveled in their sugar sweet innocence.

As one fresh-faced model after another took to the catwalk, their hair pulled back into charming ponytail buns pinned to one side by rhinestone flower clips, they conveyed a youthful energy. They were endearing in their baby doll dresses worn with Amal Clooney-like shoulder-length gloves, and more often than not finished off with shirts in a contrasting color underneath. It was almost as if the models were playing dress-up and got a bit nervous about showing too much skin.

Ditto the sculptural neoprene suiting adorned with big floral brooches. The cropped pants and shorter jackets accentuating the idea that the girls had recently gone through a growth spurt but wouldn’t give up wearing their favorite Prada pieces.

The collection’s colorful tweeds, tricked out with strips of fur in contrasting shades, made the old school material look ultra modern. And the idea of taking the pattern of the weave and blowing it up into a pixilated print, to use on dresses and coats, was a brilliant and original interpretation.

Giorgio Armani is an urban designer who built his empire in part by creating functional and fashionable work attire for women. Clothing, in city shades of black, grey, navy and white, that would blend in seamlessly among all the power-suited menswear. So on Friday it was a nice surprise to see the designer use his Emporio Armani collection to explore vibrant color blends and more voluptuous silhouettes.

The equally potent jewel hues of sapphire, ruby and amethyst were the dominant shades of the show. Glowing against the dark backdrop of black-haired models and jet black runway, they appeared together as graffiti-esque Ikat prints, stripy short sleeve furs and abstract floral prints, or as a stand-alone shade for a sporty quilted coat, maxi mohair dresses or tailored leather jackets.

Veronica Etro looked inward for the inspiration for her fall/winter 2015 collection. No, she didn’t put her psyche on display. Rather, she turned to the world of interiors and textiles for the home, an area the brand has excelled in almost since its start in 1968, to create a show that was appealing and inviting.

The brown and gold autumnal color palette and longer silhouettes immediately gave the collection a ’70s slant. As did the abundance of patchwork on display. But Etro attenuated any retro energy by giving each piece a military precision in her construction. And the tonal similarities of the geometric mosaics of material helped to soften the fabric swatch patterns for more restful results. “I call it maximalism in control,” said Etro backstage before the show.

The designer also namechecked the Wes Anderson film, The Royal Tenenbaums. And she did find a way to work in a quirky cool attitude into the ensembles. “It is very rigorous and severe in its shapes, very clean. But at the same time it’s very eclectic and eccentric,” explained the designer.

It was also very complex. In a good way. There were dresses that featured jacquards, men’s tie fabrics and intense embroidery work. Some jacquards resembled patchworks but were in fact a single weave. The knitwear pieces were beautifully done and the statement coats said just the right thing.

It’s all about the optics these days. How fashion looks online, through the story-framing lens of social media platforms and industry websites (like this one) that transmit to the world in an instant both story-defining images and bite-sized critiques.

This season, Donatella Versace, an acclaimed italian top fashion designers wanted to harness the power of the narrative and the lighting speed of the information highway with a collection that gave her house a next gen graphic dynamism. “This is my Versace for today, and forever. #GREEK symbolizes everything: the traditions of craftsmanship and the Greek key, the emoji of the future,” explained the designer in the collection’s show notes.

There were two key areas of focus for the new direction in which the designer wanted to take the brand. First off was the use of primary colors throughout the show. Fire engine red, canary yellow, emerald blue and stoplight green resonated strongly even in the most out-of-focus smart phone photos. So a pair of thigh-high patent leather green boots worn with a wide-belted black coat cut back at the front to leave the legs exposed, a yellow swing coat and matching stovepipe pant boots hybrids, and a vibrant Crayola-colored print in the brand’s hallmark graphic Greek key motif all had instant punch.

The other interesting takeaway was the amount of daywear on display in this show. The Versace-branded tops, the quilted grid-patterned outerwear and the pinstripe suiting all had real world potential. While at the same time they maintained a clear Versace sexy sartorial slant.

But the best of the bunch were the pieces that incorporated the sliced apart fabric idea that Versace used in her most recent haute couture collection. A suit with some judiciously placed slashes had a frisson of drama to it.

The first thought that flickered through the mind as the models at the Bottega Veneta fall/winter 2015 show took their final turn around the runways was, “I’m going to have to sit with this one for a while.”

It’s true that it’s now commonplace for designers to radically shift styles and concepts each season so that the link between one collection and the next is ephemeral at best. But designer Tomas Maier tended to steer clear of that philosophy. Yes, the shows had their own unique vision, but there were always foundation elements that flowed from one collection to the next.

After his much-lauded ballet-inspired previous collection, the designer took a hard right, into a world of geometric dots and thick shadow like lines and textural embellishing of jacquards and lace. The only things that felt comfortingly Bottega were the impressive tailoring on display and the brand’s commitment to luxe fabrics.

The first dot-dominated 11 looks were the pieces that made the most unforgettable impact on the psyche. Crafted from lurex, coated by plastic or appliqué onto wool, they had the fashion world’s tastemakers seeing spots. This collection is going to challenge the loyal Bottega customer. But as the saying goes, “If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.”

Houndstooth print played protagonist at the Ermanno Scervino fall/winter women’s show in Milan. Deconstructed into hashtag-like stars onto mink and available in several different macro and micro sizes on the stage, the Tuscan designer played with the pattern’s casual sartorial spirit, downplaying an otherwise ultra-elegant array of ready-to-wear.

On a more cross-border pret-a-couture note, Scervino splashed Swarovski crystals in petal and square and rectangular shapes onto belts and bodices, while astrakhan coats and ornate ethnic embroidery infused the collection with an artisan flair. Like other designers this season, Scervino experimented with outerwear fabrics for pret-a-porter with K-way puffa materials that lined skirts.

The perfume of China, intense and sophisticated like the view of Shanghai from the Bund, modern and precious like the contemporary art district of Peking. Roberto Cavalli will take this collection to a Fall Winter 2015 fashion trends as an inspiration from an unexpected vision of the Great Country, seen through the lens of the highest Italian craftsmanship!

In this interpretation, iconic Chinese elements become luxurious details and leitmotifs of a style that is both cosmpolitan and modern. Oversize gold “pagoda” buttons punctuate the dresseses, coats and maxi-gilets at a raised waist, to create an elongated silhouette. Ming vase inspired floral motifs in golden metal climb up the transparent plexiglass heels of ankle boots worn with dresses both short and supershort and semi-flats worn with loose, tailored pants.

Decorations become jewels: buckles on the wide belts and on the new Heroine bag that can be worn as a maxi clutch or as a shoulder bag. The last reference to traditional Chinese motifs is in the linings of the long coats, painted and embroidered like cloisonne’ enamel.

This graphic element is newly interpreted as a white stiched leather embellishment on column coats in wool crepe, in white string embroidery on black micropaillette evening dresses, melded with classic floral patterns, in white pailletes on fur, or in silk fringed by hand and added to fabric to create an entirely new type of “fur.”

Mother’s Day came early at the Dolce and Gabbana show. The sweet maternal adoration started with the invitations: childhood drawings done by the designers that their mothers had put away for safe keeping. Today they became collectors items for a number of editors who have every intention of framing them when they get home. Then at the show, each guest was given a foulard created by the duo and a poem by Edoardo Bennato titled “Hurray for Mum.” With the audience feeling sufficiently sentimental, the designers finally pulled back the curtains and let their models take to the powder pink catwalk.

They came alone, covered in “I love you” messages (written in English or Italian) embroidered into jackets, dresses, coats and skirts, or, alternatively, in silk ensembles crafted out of those now familiar childhood drawings. They came carrying babies or holding hands with their daughters in ensembles festooned with blooming roses. They even showed up enceinte.

The duo did what they do best. Beautiful black lace numbers, deftly tailored jackets and 1950s hourglass dresses are a part of the brand’s lexicon. They also added in some covetable accessories. The bejeweled headphones are going to play big in the glossy fashion magazine next season. As will the myriad of handbags, from boxy little plexiglass to big fur totes.

Things look to be lining up for the Salvatore Ferragamo brand. Its chief executive Michele Norsa just announced to the press that the house reported a preliminary 6 percent rise in revenue, which comes out to 1,3 billion euros. The final number will be revealed when the official results are announced on March 12.

On the catwalk too the designer Masssimiliano Giornetti is also walking a line this season. Or rather, he transmitted its power to dissect, delineate and define boundaries onto his winning fall/winter 2015 collection.

There was much on the catwalk that the industry has seen before: the color blocking knitwear in autumnal hues, the use of different widths of stripes along the hemlines of coats, and the choice to insert monochrome colors into the pleats of tweed skirts. Even the ribbing effect on fur outerwear felt familiar.

Somehow Giornetti was able to tweak these recognizable geometric constructs and give them a new vitality. There was the tactile nature of his chosen knits and fabrics. One asymmetrically composed stained glass color block knit dress laid down each color section with a different surface texture (ribbed, smooth, waffle).

Angela Missoni called her fall/winter collection “Knit Me Up!”, the addition of the exclamation point clearly intended to inject some energy into the banal phrase. The brand too has been in some serious need of new intensity. And it got that on Sunday night.

The house’s famous knitwear was pulled in tight for sporty yet punky body con dresses worn with second skin leggings, swinging fringe earrings and sectional pointy-toed boots. All of it in marble motifs and wavy neo-tie-dye-patterned jacquard knits.

As the models walked down a runway that resembled wrinkled fabric, the dissonant layering of the different patterned single shoulder dresses, high-slit skirts and wide keyhole cut-out tops, in a myriad of vibrant colors, looked more muddled than magnetic.

It’s true that the Missoni brand is in need of some new directionality. But this season it sacrificed its usually spot-on color sense and sophisticated weave work in the name of trying something novel.

Missoni missed the mark this time. But it’s good to see such an established brand willing to still take risks. Here’s hoping they keep trying next season.

Dsquared2 – day#6

Instead of doing their typical theatrical staging background, designers Dean and Dan Caten went minimal. Crafting a monolithic wall out of what appeared to be marble and inserting into it a stone staircase. The duo didn’t want to give anything away, not even via one of their traditionally playful show notes.

The navy blue military coats with gilded livery frogging will always find a buyer. So too will the taut vests and cropped jodhpur pants and the fitted denim jeans that finished off with regimental red and gold bands of silk. And the flouncy dresses were sexy and playful takes on vintage sous vêtements.

The show’s tribal-patterned fur coats (even if they skewed a bit closer to Eskimo than Indian) and colorful ponchos are destined to don the covers of glossy magazines around the globe. Accessory lovers will have a field day with all the tribal-embellished handbags, furry strappy heels and fur accent pieces.

And by the time the show ended, guests were already sending out modern-day smoke signals (photos posted to Instagram and Twitter) of their favorite DSquarded2 squaw designs.

The one thing that really had the audience buzzing at the Giorgio Armani show, which marked the end of Milan Fashion Week, was the pants. The designer came up with a trouser silhouette that looked original, odd and undeniably appealing.

He morphed a wrap front skirt into slim pants that were constructed so that the hem of the skirt grew out from the knees of the trousers to swathe the waistline. It was a silhouette that could hide a multitude of sins. Now the question is what to call this new sartorial creature.

The fluid nature of these pants — how seamlessly they moved from being one thing into another — was at the heart of this show. Throughout the presentation, Armani gave his designs an impression of movement and a sense of ease.

This was conveyed through the use of the colorful bleeding watercolor-esque brush stroke prints seen at the start of his show, through the relaxed knit double-breasted blazers, the fluffy icy blue shearling coats, and some sleeveless zip up shell tops that spilled out from the collar into cropped vests.

The only time the sensation stopped was when a series of evening offerings, that consisted of black velvet trousers that used wide obi/cummerbund belts to link the look to cropped amorphic tops, took a turn on the runway.

But the designer smartly returned to his undulating and easy wardrobe offerings. Finishing off in style with some shimmering wrap fronted dresses featuring a band of black velvet arching up and over the curve of one hip. At the end, there’s a bittersweet taste of this milan fashion week 2015, isn’t? But ain’t over, because Milan Design Agenda will deliver more reviews of what fashion trends 2015, Milan fashion week gave….Follow us!